August 17, 2013 11:12 PM CDTAugust 17, 2013 11:45 PM CDTWhen it comes to recruiting sports teams, Frisco’s in a league of its own

When it comes to recruiting sports teams, Frisco’s in a league of its own

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Louis DeLuca/Staff Photographer

FC Dallas has helped build interest among young soccer fans, who watched the team practice recently. “We’re developing future sports stars,” said Kelly Weller, vice president of marketing and communications for the team.

Frisco’s strategy to become a destination city has found success in sports.

The partnership announced last week with the Dallas Cowboys is only the latest example in a long line of wins.

Three professional teams already call Frisco home. A fourth has a headquarters and training facilities there. The city owns multiple state-of-the-art venues. And it keeps them as full as possible by hosting numerous state, regional and national events, from soccer to gymnastics to cycling. The largest is the NCAA Division I Football Championship, played at FC Dallas Stadium since 2010.

A strong contingent of young athletes also puts huge demands on facilities, from ball fields to basketball courts.

“The beauty of it is we’re not done,” Mayor Maher Maso said.

He said the ultimate goal is to be “a world destination for tournaments, training and family growth.”

Frisco IS Sports, a new initiative by the Frisco Convention and Visitors Bureau, feeds into that. The initiative will spread the word nationally that the city is available for athletic events big and small.

Plans also are in the works to build a cadre of local volunteers and corporate support. Those will be key if Frisco is to land some of the bigger events. The visitors bureau has started working through an extensive bidding process to bring several other NCAA events to town.

The idea is to take efforts to the next level and brand the city more around sports, said Marla Roe, executive director of the bureau, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in October.

Frisco has been one of the fastest-growing cities in nation in recent years. Add to that the city’s focus on families and a population whose median income is nearly double the national average. Those elements make Frisco well suited as a sports town.

The city is home to the Frisco RoughRiders minor league baseball team, the NBA Development League’s Texas Legends and the FC Dallas Major League Soccer team.

The city recently lost the Texas Tornado Junior A hockey team to North Richland Hills because of financing issues, but it still has a hockey presence with the NHL’s Dallas Stars, whose headquarters and practice ice have been in Frisco since 2002. In addition, the city has the offices for the North American Hockey League and the Southland Conference college athletic league.

Also on the plus side is Frisco’s multitude of venues, from FC Dallas Stadium and the Dr Pepper Arena to Frisco ISD Memorial Stadium and Fieldhouse USA. Frisco also has a velodrome for cycling, the Frisco ISD Natatorium and a multitude of city complexes for baseball, soccer and other activities. The USA Swimming club team Frisco Aquatics expects to break ground on a new center with an Olympic-size pool this month.

The Cowboys’ indoor training facility and two outdoor fields planned to open by 2016 along the Dallas North Tollway will fit well with that mix.

“Not only are they first-class, but it’s a wide variety,” Roe said of the venues. “The more multipurpose — it just enhances what you have to sell in the city.”

Other tourism segments won’t be abandoned because of the sports initiative, Roe said. Visitor spending is big business in Frisco, and plans are to continue that.

But sports tourism, especially among youths, is growing. Roe said sporting events in Frisco typically generate more hotel room nights than other groups.

It’s easy to see why, said Don Schumacher, executive director of the nonprofit National Association of Sports Commissions.

For example, if your 12-year-old daughter’s team qualifies for a tournament in another city, you’re not going to say no, Schumacher said. And when the child athlete travels, so do the parents, the siblings and even some grandparents.

“That drives the business,” Schumacher said.

And while having professional sports teams isn’t a requirement, they do boost a city’s chances of attracting youths.

“If you can have kids play where the professional team practices and plays, kids respond very well to that,” Schumacher said.

That’s the case with FC Dallas Stadium.

The main stadium field and 17 regulation-size soccer fields bring in steady business that other venues find tough to beat.

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